This study reports on an analysis of preservice teachers' dialogue journal entries for evidence of ways in which teachers develop conceptual understanding for writing instruction. Teachers' propositional statements were identified and coded at a specific level for three themes: (1) level of instructional scaffolding, (2) focus of proposed…

Preservice elementary teachers have been shown to generally possess poor mathematical knowledge (e.g. Goulding, Rowland, & Barber, 2002) and also strong negative attitudes toward mathematics (e.g. MacNab & Payne, 2004). Recently, national organizations have proposed interventions to address these issues (Conference Board of the…

The study investigated the changes in levels of mathematics anxiety among pre-service teachers in six different sections of a mathematics method courses for early childhood/elementary education pre-service teachers. The changes were a function of using Bruner's framework of developing conceptual knowledge before procedural knowledge and using…

The context for this investigation was an undergraduate literacy methods course taught by Cindy, the first author of this manuscript. A central course goal was to prepare pre-service teachers to provide effective literacy instruction for children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The focus of this study was an examination of the…

This investigation examines an elementary social studies methods course taught on an American Indian reservation through a state university. Data were collected from American Indian pre-service teachers over four years through taped interviews, classroom observations, and a review of homework and in-class assignments. A Freirean critical pedagogy…

Purpose: This paper reports on the adaptation of an existing interpretive and critical research methods course in nursing for postgraduate student health professionals in a School of Population Health and Clinical Practice. Methods: A cyclical approach of inquiry, reflection and planning was undertaken by the teaching team to make changes to the…

This study attempted to explore the relationship between elementary teacher candidates' conceptions of the nature of science and their consequent conceptions of teaching science. In order to measure patterns and trends in how elementary teacher candidates define the nature of science and the teaching of science, an open-ended qualitative…

An action research project was conducted to promote critically reflective teaching in a semester-long secondary social studies methods course. To encourage critical reflection, the instructor drew explicit attention to issues of rationale building in social studies, critical thinking, democratic education, and social transformation. Evidence of…

This study identifies some of the questions mathematics educators must address in designing methods courses for graduate students in preservice teacher education programs. The questions emerge from a pilot study of preservice early childhood graduate students' beliefs about the nature of mathematics and science. In a combined mathematics and…

The Learning Community program at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh brings together four individual teacher education methods courses in an integrated block with clinical field experience. The program provides teacher educators the opportunity to integrate their instruction with other courses and contextualize the learning of students with…

If portfolios are to be used to assess students' progress, it is essential for preservice teachers to have the opportunity to become familiar with the use of this technique prior to beginning their teaching career. At Eastern College, Pennsylvania, portfolio assessment is first introduced in the Developmental Reading course and further refined in…

The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to compare attitudes that male and female preservice elementary science methods teachers have toward science and science teaching. The stratified random sample (n=80) was drawn from the population of preservice elementary teachers enrolled in an elementary science methods course during fall 1990,…

This self-instructional curriculum module was developed to assist with early childhood special education program planning, by providing references to curricula and textbooks, curriculum guides, journal articles, videos, and demonstration model materials appropriate for self-instruction. The module is designed to help individuals locate information…

A study investigated the effects of actively involving students in a social studies methods class on instructor evaluations given by students. Subjects were 30 undergraduates who were all elementary education majors except for one special education major. Subjects (27 female and 3 male) ranged in age from 21 to 53 years old. The experimental…

A teaching/learning strategy called "Content-Field Synergy" (C-FS) promotes systematic instruction in the use of naturalistic inquiry as a higher order thinking strategy in social context. C-FS is a total course of study design that synthesizes and extends material from the required course text and lectures with observations from a…